By News Reporters
Exemplar the property developer which is creating the huge new building complex in Fitzrovia has been condemned by an international community of health workers and patients for trying to erase the name Middlesex from the site of the former hospital.
The site which will be completed later this year was to be called Fitzroy Place, then when that name was over-ruled by authorities, the name Pearson Square was chosen. Now the only remaining part of the original hospital — The Middlesex Hospital Chapel — is to be re-branded in Exemplar’s own corporate image.
Gone will be Middlesex and Hospital and instead Exemplar plan to call the Grade II* listed building Pearson Chapel after the architect who designed its interior.
Local people, former staff and patients of the hospital are furious at Exemplar’s crass re-naming of this last memory to the institution that brought life into the world and saved countless more.
Exemplar on behalf of the consortium which includes Aviva and Kaupthing ignored the wishes of local people and former staff of the hospital by refusing to have any mention of Middlesex in the name in the new street through the development.
Over a thousand people signed a petition to retain the name Middlesex in a street name on the site, but Exemplar rejected their collective plea.
Even the hospital chapel is not sacrosanct in the developer’s desire to eradicate the name Middlesex.
Harriet Griffey wrote to say: “Exemplar seem to be hell bent on removing all historical reference to the hospital”. She was joined in condemnation of Exemplar by other hospital workers.
Exemplar declined to comment to Fitzrovia News about changing the name. See also: Unanswered questions about Middlesex Hospital Chapel.
Exemplar have a Section 106 Agreement with Westminster City Council to restore and create a trust to manage the Middlesex Hospital Chapel.
Fitzrovia News has created a petition calling upon Westminster City Council to Preserve the name Middlesex Hospital Chapel. Please sign it to show your support. If you live, study or work in City of Westminster, please sign here; if you are outside of City of Westminster, please sign here.
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